


I’ll Love You Forever, That’s the Problem

by 6Space_Witch9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Abandonment, Abuse of Authority, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Catharsis, Character Death, Dissociation, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Falling In Love, Happy Ending, Hiding in Plain Sight, Kidnapping, Loss of Identity, M/M, Mandalorian Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obsession, On the Run, Permanent Injury, Planet Saleucami (Star Wars), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Power Imbalance, Recovery, Self-Discovery, Stalking, Substance Abuse, farm life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25654603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6Space_Witch9/pseuds/6Space_Witch9
Summary: The farm is quiet, the night is peaceful as the stars twinkle above him, it’s  so different than Coruscant. He doubts the baby strapped to his chest would like the city planet. As perfect as Cut and Suu’s farm is, he knows he can’t stay on Saleucami forever.If he stops running what happened all those months ago will catch-up to him, he can’t bare to relive it again, he won’t.He ran away and  he knows there’s no going back.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Cut Lawquane & CT-7567 | Rex, Cut Lawquane/Suu Lawquane, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 10
Kudos: 236





	1. Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan has been many things to him since they first met on Christophsis, but in private he is just Ben, something the man had asked many, many months ago, to just be Ben.
> 
> Ben is all ever Rex has ever needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've decided to fully revamp this fic, it had been one of my earlier ones, I say "earlier" in quotations because I only really restarted writing fanfics back in late May of 2020 but I feel like my writing has improved a great deal and I couldn't bring myself to delete this fic but I just didn't like it anymore, so as you can see I deleted all the chapters, this revamp will still share all the big themes of my old one but the plot is being changed majorly but also share details and themes of the last fic.
> 
> Anyway I hope I didn't disappoint anyone and I hope you'll like this new version of the fic. :))

“You sure this is it Bane?” The slicer asks as she turns her head to the Duros, the man scares her shitless, but he’s paying her a good sum of money to slice into this stupid database.

“Yes, now keep working. You’re supposed to be good so show me I’m not wasting my credits.” He hisses and she quickly turns back to the terminal and bunches her shoulders.

She doesn’t get why the footage is so important, no one cares for the clones. Sure, there are a few bleeding hearts out there but many just viewed them as burdening tax increase. Walking blasters who are just as mindless as the droids behind their helmets, only programmed to follow orders and have an endless loyalty towards the Republic.

Kara finds them unnerving, they march in perfect lines with the same face and same voice on their way to slaughter another planet. Why the Senate keeps paying so much for Kaminoans to manufacture them, she will never know. But it isn’t her job to know, she’s just a two-bit criminal.

A cold and soulless army for a cold and soulless order, Kara almost snorts at how poetic the Republic army is.

“What’s so important about these video files anyways?” She asks as several begin to download onto her modified probe droid, it beeps at her as if to tell her to close her big mouth.

“Do I look like the kind of man who asks about the reasoning behind a job?” Bane asks dryly as he scowls at her.

She shakes her head and presses her lips together, he looks as if he’s on the verge of shooting her if she opens her mouth again and she’d rather not risk it. With the money from the job, her brother would finally be able to move off their homeworld. Which is, at this point is just a war-torn rock after the years of abuse it has faced. She’s missed her brother so much and all the filthy hard work she’s had to do will finally be worth it.

“I’m done.” She says as her droid spits out the copied information onto the datapad, he grunts and smirks slightly as she slams the pad in his hand.

“I do appreciate your help little lady, but this is where we part ways.” Cad Bane says and her blood runs cold as he levels his blaster to her chest.

“What are you doing! I’m on your side!” Kara shouts as she backs up against the computer.

“Plans change, you’d squeal the moment the Republic catches you and that would look bad on me, _I am a professional_. I have to keep my appearances. Can’t have the Jedi thinking I’m going soft.” Bane says, there’s a moment where he doesn’t immediately kill her and she begs, she begs for someone to come save her.

But they don’t, they never have, why would this time be any different. It hurts when pumps several blaster bolts into her chest. She hits the computer and slides to the ground leaving a bloody streak along the computer.

Cad Bane doesn’t even spare her a second glance as he walks away twirling his blaster and holding the datapad with all her work in his hand, the bastard.

Kara lets herself feel overwhelmingly angry knowing that she’s been betrayed, but then she feels a crippling anguish knowing that she’ll never see her brother again. She’s going to die within minutes and for all she’s been through, all the close calls and impossible escapes Kara’s had, she knows she won’t get out of this one.

No knight in shining armour will come and whisk her away to safety.

“KY-L3, release the data to the network, let the people see everything, boost the confidential files, the blue bastard has killed me, least we can do is make his life harder.” She says, her voice is rough and mangled as blood fills her lungs.

The little purple probe trills in concern before it floats over to lay on her lap, releasing a string of sad beeps.

“I’m sure buddy, the least I can do is make whoever hired Bane think he did a sloppy job.” She says with a chuckle.

She tries to breathe around the pain in her chest as she slowly bleeds out, her only condolence that comforts her is the view of the vast galaxy that shines through the skylight above her. Oh, how she wishes she is out there in the stars going on the adventures she and her brother had always planned to rather on the wretched city-planet.

A few tears slide from Kara’s eyes, she only wishes she had the chance to say goodbye one last time.

“If you find my brother, which is a long shot I know, tell him that I love him and not to be angry.” She whispers before letting out her last dying breath.

_A tech intern finds her body several hours later while completing her early morning shift. Her screams alert the Coruscant Guard, an investigation is performed but nothing is found, they call it a suicide even if it’s obviously not one. In the end, her brother is contacted to collect her body but he can’t afford the trip so he tells them to jettison her body into space so she can be among the stars. (He knows that she’ll rot in some forgotten morgue like all the bodies do on Coruscant.)_

* * *

His left arm trembles, his chest aches, and every time a button slips out of his fingers his patience wears thinner and thinner. It’s already tissue paper thin and he knows he’s on the verge of tearing his dress uniform to bits, but it’s the only one he has and while on the Senatorial pleasure cruiser it’s unlikely that he can just stroll down to the quartermaster and request another one.

If they had wanted him to destress and recuperate from Umbara then they should have sent him somewhere where random acts of violence fueled by uncontrollable surges of emotion weren’t going to cause him any consequences, because right now all he wants to do is lay into some battle droids.

The crunch of metal is always satisfying when you manage to hit them just right.

But instead, they fitted him with a weeklong babysitting duty assignment with the usual suspects.

Sometimes it felt like they were the only ones who were fighting this war with the way the 501st and 212th get tossed around the galaxy, the town speeder bike is what they are, everyone gets a ride.

His door pings and he’s tempted to ignore it, but as angry as he is at his current tiny inconvenience, someone is here to see him and he doesn’t have a valid excuse to turn them away.

“Door’s open.” He shouts turning his attention back to his button.

He both had and hadn’t expected Obi-Wan to slide quietly into his cabin, he hadn’t shown up to his door in weeks when before it would be as often as he could without looking suspicious.

Even though there was nothing to be especially guilty about, sexual releases were just that, a spare few moments to spend with someone to work off the tension and stress that war pilled onto their shoulders.

It just so happens that he and Obi-Wan had started making late-night visits to each other quarters, how long had that been? Saleucami? It had to be, he had survived a near-fatal pot shot and had his entire life structure twisted around to the point where he couldn’t even believe that he himself was purposefully keeping secrets for a deserter.

If he was now just outright lying to his superiors, might as well add sleeping with High General Obi-Wan Kenobi to his list of insubordination.

Hell, he can even add a successful military coup and killing a Jedi to his list too. Wonderful.

“Let me help you with that.” Obi-Wan says softly as he pulls Rex’s hands away from the fucking buttons making his life harder than it needs to be.

Right, Obi-Wan is here, after weeks of not showing up, he can’t blame the other Jedi, in a way Rex hadn’t wanted to see him looking like a kicked dog. He didn’t want to see the pity, or grief or hear apologies that weren’t his responsibility to give.

He was the one that put the bolts on Krell’s back, he killed him because it was the right thing to do, he had always been enraged, in a way it had felt good to kill him. He knows that doesn’t make him a good soldier, let alone a good man, killing sentients shouldn’t feel like anything.

Maybe the war has messed with his head more than he previously thought.

Obi-Wan’s hands brush against his bare chest and he shivers. Apparently, they’ve been intimate enough that his brain is rewired to expect sex when Obi-Wan’s this close. The tension slowly bleeds out of his muscles the longer he and Oi-wan stand together in the silence of the cabin.

He has missed the man, before Umbara their relationship had been well on its way to being more than just purely sexual, but then Krell did happen and when the smoke had cleared the Jedi were suddenly afraid of him, clones aren’t supposed to kill Jedi. He had a power that they knew could destroy them, he had his men’s undying loyalty to as brothers.

Nothing would ever surpass that.

“General...” Rex starts to say, the ‘why are you here’ never comes because the red-haired man gently cups his jaw and kisses the corner of his mouth.

He lowers his eyes as he speaks.

“There are lots of things I need to say to you, my dear Captain, and I know I have waited far too long to approach you, but would you care to meet me at my cabin after the dinner session has ended?” Obi-wan asks tentatively as he flattens out the white fabric of his dress uniform.

He’s left the board wide-open for Rex to make any move, he could kick the Jedi out and tell him to never speak to him again and nothing would ever change.

But he won’t, he would never.

“Of course, Ben.” Rex replies using the man’s alias, it makes the Jedi inhale softly before he leans in again to kiss him again, this time he tilts his head so they can slot their mouths together.

Obi-Wan has been many things to him since they first met on Christophsis, but in private he is just Ben, something the man had asked many, many months ago, to just be Ben.

Ben is all ever Rex has ever needed.

He has to pull himself away from the kiss before he’s tempted to rip their clothes off, that would be counterproductive so close to dinner. Not mention the obvious fact that he would need more than 20 minutes to be satisfied.

Obi-Wan sighs as they part, it’s nice, better than good and for the first time in weeks, reality doesn’t seem so grey, like he’s finally been able to adjust a staticky HUD.

The man had returned to him, they have mountains of emotional baggage to move between them, but in the moment all that matters is that he came back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me ya thoughts!


	2. Oh, you thought you were safe?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’re calling for his head.
> 
> He can’t even breathe even if he tried as the room is plunged into darkness.

There was nothing cathartic about killing Pong Krell, the bastard had been right in the end, even as he knelt in the cell and had his back open and vulnerable with a blaster aimed at him, he had all the power. He revelled in the fact that Rex couldn’t do it, that he had been afraid, that even after all the fallen Jedi did to his men, after all the abuse they had suffered he couldn’t bring himself to kill him.

It was only Dogma’s missed shot that had his hand jerking into motion with a sloppy shot, a single bolt sliced through his throat and in a panic he had but several more bolts into his back to cease the awful choking sound of a man slowly suffocating on blood through a chard windpipe.

What was supposed to be a clean execution became messy mercy kill. In another life, he wonders what would’ve happened if Fives hadn’t realized that Dogma had swiped his pistol from its holster. The kid probably would’ve been the one to kill Krell and he would be the sole one to bear all the consequences. But this time that nightmare didn’t happen, Dogma hadn’t been the one to be hauled away in cuffs.

(He’s still surprised the General hadn’t gotten into a fistfight with the Coruscant Guard as they frog marched him off the troop transport once it landed on Coruscant. Even more surprised that Cody hadn’t started an all-out brawl with Fox as he waited his days out in a very lonely and cold cell.)

The kid had survived, barely, like the rest of them, but it hadn’t been Dogma that had survived. It was foolish to believe the shiny could walk away from something like this and retain who he had been before stepping onto the shadowy planet.

In a way, he still mourns Dogma even as he greets the kid every day as they go about their business.

Ahsoka looks at him expectantly and he realizes all too clumsily that Senator Amidala has asked him a question probably related to the conversation he hasn’t been paying attention to. He can’t even try to desperately scramble for something to say because he had been so lost in his own pity party that the conversation and blurred into general background noise at least five minutes ago.

The best he can do now is to save face in hopes he doesn’t embarrass himself in front of his audience of expectant Senators all ready to be dazzled by his watered-down retellings of the 501st’s great triumphs over the separatist droid army.

 _Talk about the men, Padmé’s been trying to win over sympathizers for ending the war effort all night._ Ahsoka whispers at the back of his mind and he nods his head subtly in thanks. He takes another sip of his shimmering red cocktail, the alcohol warms his gut pleasantly and blurs the edges of his current reality of playing a dancing monkey.

Good memories always did come easier when he isn’t sober enough to remember all the men he has lost.

Even without looking at him, he knows Cody is eyeing him warily from across the cocktail lounge from his own conversation, and he takes another long sip to spite him. A brother couldn’t have a drink once in a while?

He’s not the _Prime_ if that’s what the Marshal Commander thinks, Jango would’ve drunk speeder fuel if it gave him a buzz. _They really did chose a man with baggage to clone._

“I wouldn’t want any other men serving under me, they keep me on my toes as much as I keep them in line, I know every officer can say the same about their own men that serve under them, but I don’t ever see myself commanding men as important to me as the boys in the 501st are. I can also thank Commander Tano and General Skywalker for helping the men to come into their own.” Rex replies with a smile, a real schmoozer Alpha had called him, not as sly as Neyo but living in Anakin’s back pocket had made him a certified professional in morphing his smile into one that would have an intrigued audience begging for more.

He can feel Ahsoka’s gratitude mingled with pride at his words as she hangs at the mental door he had opened for her. It had been weird at first to have a 14-year-old girl suddenly rattling around in his head, he had only just adjusted to feeling Anakin’s presence after he had been assigned as his Captain after the first battle of Geonosis. But allowing the Jedi to slip through his mental shields proved to save him more than once on the battlefield, he specifically ignores the relief he feels in Ahsoka’s parting presence.

He hadn’t opened the mental door to her or Anakin since Umbara, he didn’t want them to know how deeply Krell had ruined him, so he had sealed his mind in carbonite, and they had gotten the message loud and clear. He tries his best not to feel guilty at how hopeful the young Togruta feels. He never meant to make her feel like the damage Krell caused had been her burden or fault to bear. His vod’ika had enough on her shoulder as it is and he won’t let his issues weigh her down any further.

He'll say it a hundred times more if it releases their frantic urge to try to make things right again, like the knight and his padawan ever had any controller over what another Jedi did.

“I’ve heard you’ve gotten some promising new recruits recently. What are they like? I’ve heard Knight Skywalker speak about them any chance he can.” The Senator nudges him to continue.

Of course, she would, it would be weird if her husband didn’t talk about his day to her, wasn’t complaining about a workday and gossiping about coworkers at least half the part of getting married?

“Tup and Dogma came to us just before the siege of Umbara, both of them are stand up young men and definitely have potential, I may nudge them both towards specialized training as they get more campaigns under their belts. I find that individuality and creative adaptability are a few of the 501st greatest strengths and the more you nurture a soldier’s individual strengths the better a unit or legion becomes.” Rex explains as the Senators coo at his laminations of pride.

But.

There’s one Senator in their group who has been scoffing and rolling their eyes subtly all throughout the conversation. While he’s seen the look often enough on nat-borns who can’t understand, or who refuse to accept their existence, there’s something about the Utapaun that unnerves him. Padmé apparently sees the not so subtle disdain as well, and he can see the way she straightens like she’s about to give a speech to the senate.

“Senator Ro, is there something you would like to address?” Padmé asks with narrowed eyes.

There’s an uneasy tension in their circle now, the other Senators shift as if ready to leave the confrontation at any moment.

“I’m glad you asked dearest Amidala, in fact, there is something I would like to address, I just find it mildly concerning that the Captain here can mask his true nature so seamlessly. Perhaps the Kaminoans made too good of a soldier that their kind can seamlessly achieve the role of obedient, loyal soldiers while among the rest of us. Personally Senator, I do believe the clones, and the Captain specifically is a threat to our lives and the sanctity of the galaxy... I saw what really happened on Umbara and I made sure that the Senate would as well.” The Utapaun growls stepping forward to jab his finger into his chest, as much as he wants to, as much as the alcohol in his gut urges him to, he doesn’t shove the Senator back.

His words haven’t registered in his mind, the meaning of what he’s said doesn’t make any sense, but if he knows one thing, it’s that anything tied to Umbara means nothing good for him.

“I beg your pardon Senator Ro, but what did you see to Umbara? The 501st and 212th led an assault on the ground and managed to capture the planet within a month, while our losses were heavy it had been an uncomplicated campaign.” Rex replies, feigning innocence the best he could.

The chance that the Senator actually knew anything is slim to none, the Jedi had kept it as an internal affair for several purposeful reasons in order to keep the thinly maintained peace between the Order and the public. He had a non-trial, there was no angle for redemption or misinterpretation when the man said he hoped to become Dooku’s new apprentice, the Jedi would’ve killed him eventually if Rex hadn’t.

They also couldn’t afford to replace him, Anakin would probably keep him as his Captain just to spite the Council, he wouldn’t doubt the fact that the man probably would've either found a loophole or would've willed the reality he wanted into being.

Speaking of the man, Anakin looks over his shoulder with a slight frown along with Obi-Wan and Cody, as they've now gathered a crowd.

“Another lie, Captain Rex? While I expected your kind to be compliant, I wouldn’t quite expect outright treachours behaviour from a decorated Captain such as yourself.” The Senator is raising his voice now and the other twenty senators who are scattered around the bar and lounge areas are looking over at them as well. The Upatan has the room’s undivided attention as he inches closer and closer to a truth that Rex knows he should have never been privy to.

“Senator Ro, harassing an officer of the GAR while he doing us a favour by providing security while answering our questions seems highly unprofessional don’t you think?” She pushes back, slipping in between him and the enraged man, pushing him back and away from his space.

He bets that he looks ridiculous with the smaller woman guarding him like a wild Nexu as he stands at least over her and pale-faced. The woman is a blessing and he’s just glad he’s on her good side.

“I believe murderer would be a fitting title Senator Amidala, and I believe that Supreme Chancellor would readily agree with me, and if I’m not wrong he should be addressing the chamber now.” Senator Ro says with a crooked smile that is anything but kind.

“Bartender! The Senate meeting if you will?” Ro barks and the pale yellow Twi’lek startles before he turns the music down and darkens the room as the blue glow of a hologram ignites in the center of the room. Everyone watches as his life unravels before their eyes.

In the moment as he held Krell at gunpoint he hadn’t even considered the fact that the prisoners would see every second of their coup. The footage is distorted and warbly in the same way most Umbaran technology is, but it’s as clear as day as to what they’re looking at.

The footage doesn’t catch the way his arm had been shaking as he held the pistol in line with Krell’s heart. It just shows him grim-faced and unwavering as he keeps his gun on the cuffed Jedi, there’s no audio, it makes the video worse. it’s just unnerving silence as their lips move.

Unable to hear what Krell is saying make the footage even more damning, if that's even possible. He tries to keep his breathing steady, but he feels everyone's eyes on him, his lungs fill with iron and he tries not to gasp and choke on the panic he feels.

He knows what comes next, he can see Ro with a self-satisfied smirk as he watches the footage with the rest of the room like he hadn’t been the one to bring on the disruption. He wants to kill him, gut him, why did this man have the right to walk in and try to frame him as something he isn’t. But in a way, he is everything Ro claims him to be..isn't he?

But, who is he to tear his life apart?

The room flinches as they see how he shoots him through the neck, then three more times in the back as the man convulses in pain, it goes on for much longer than Rex remembers the impromptu execution being.

He can see the way the Jedi and Cody shift in the room, preparing to do damage control, to explain Rex’s sins away. He doubts this crowd will be so forgiving, their thoughts on who he could kill are set in stone, and it had been clear as to who had been the victim in the footage.

Seeing the Chancellor pop up doesn’t make him feel any better.

 _“Like the rest of you I am deeply shocked and appalled by the footage sent to us, to have the murder of a decorated and successful Jedi covered up makes plenty of room to be concerned. Actions like the ones seen in the footage cannot go unpunished and I promise to every Senator in this chamber as your Supreme Chancellor, I promise that a full investigation into the murder of General Pong Krell will be completed. Captain Rex will face the full consequences for his actions to show that this crime will not go unpunished, the clone soldiers fight for us and we are grateful but acts of treachery are unacceptable. For the protection of the Republic and her citizens, I will personally see that order is kept as we face trying times.”_ The Chancellor proclaims as the house bursts into an uproarious debate and shouts from thousands of different senators, their voices mesh together in indistinct sound but he knows the call for blood when he hears it.

They’re calling for his head.

He can’t even breathe even if he tried as the room is plunged into darkness.


End file.
